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Doctor Who – The Doctor’s Wife Review

‘The Doctor receives a distress signal from an old friend. Could there really be another living Time Lord out there? Hopes raised, he follows the signal to a junkyard planet sitting upon a mysterious asteroid in a Bubble universe, populated by a very strange family.‘

I’d been looking forward to this episode ever since I heard that Neil Gaiman was writing it. Letting that twisted mind play in the universe of Doctor Who is a recipe for brilliance. And Gaiman certainly didn’t disappoint with this episode. This is the best episode of Doctor Who that I have seen in a long time.

From the very beginning, Gaiman’s touch on the episode is obvious – many of the scenes almost feel like they should be playing out in claymation like The Corpse Bride. It is everything that a Doctor Who episode should be: strange and fun with a strong undercurrent of emotion to back it up.

**SPOILERS**

Suranne Jones absolutely nails her performance as the TARDIS in human form, combining deep wisdom with a complete lack of understanding of how mortals function. There was real chemistry between Idris and The Doctor which makes perfect sense since this is the core relationship of The Doctor’s life. As Amy nicely puts it:

‘It’s always you and her isn’t it, long after the rest of us have gone. A boy and his box off to see the universe.‘

She’s his TARDIS and he’s her thief. Seeing them work together was great fun, and it makes me sad that we’re not likely to see it again (although never say never when it comes to Doctor Who).

The episode was also a great chance for Rory (Arthur Darvill) to shine. He’s been a great presence the entire time that he’s been on the show, but the scenes of torment at the hands of House really showed off his range. I really like that they’ve decided to keep the show with two companions. It fits in much better with the style of the show since Matt Smith took over as The Doctor, and having just one companion was getting a bit tired.

I hope that they get Neil Gaiman back to write more episodes. I couldn’t really find anything to complain about with this episode.

What I Liked – Everything.

What I didn’t Like – We probably won’t get to see the TARDIS in human form again.